F-i90HD Many problems

[j1979]

ftp://ftp.abit.com.tw/pub/download/bios/fi90hd/

certainly a no. of mobos had a BIOS predating that 11

my first board had the evaluation rom "not for sale"

and the second had the file above but still had the same problems and also died, so from my point of view this bios update did not work for me. but on the other hand the bios could be fine but another common link could be the problem.

as with the packaging both my boards were allowed to shift in the box, and like many others the cardboard on the inside was scratched, the marks suggested that the board was moving freely about 2 inches (forwards and back).

[prehensile]

its Intel's fault!

[gilgamesh]

its Intel's fault!

lol ol , intel, lntel !!we will have no intels herrrrrrrre. This is a descent forum and a LOCAL board we wont have trouble herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre
(edward tatsyrup-league of gentlemen)


gilgamesh

[konman43]

thanks, but i ran away with my tail between my legs. i returned the board. i wanted to do an exchange as fry's only had one left, but i couldn't justify another possible trip to frys as gas prices are higher than ever right now. i'll still be keepin my eye on the forum to see what the deal is because i still do want this board oh so much.

[romeo9]

I've had two bad ones in the same case+PSU. (you may recall that I've had 6 boards in total, 3 fine - currently, one with broken single push-pin that was retured). Tested the PSU today using an LCD volts+ripple tester and it is testing fine notably on the 24+4 pin socketry. So my issues look like flakey boards. However I'm bothering to post to point out that I'm still working 3 of these boards with E4300 at stock values on firmware 1.1 quite happily. I've got some reservations on putting them into a hosting centre all on their own (the rationale being that when these units are decommissioned, they'll be of use in the home, someones home given that HDMI 1.2 is likely to be useful for quite a few more years). Antec NSK2400 was the solution that worked this time around.

I've never had any build-up of heat on my NSK1300 case. I've always had an additional fan on it's PSU outrigger and an additional one on the case front to attempt to move air around the RAM. I don't care for quiet over reliability.

Still, the boards failed - and on the last board I returned with an issue with the Red output on VGA seemed to become a Fatal1ty when I did a restart in XP. So maybe the BIOS is causing a clock or northbridge parameter setting that results in heat and avalanche breakdown of the semiconductor. I've never used a buzzer on the speaker and this board doesn't have a PCI diag indicator either. So the first thing you do is to remove power and back track down to 1 DIMM or swap to the other stick you have in a 1 DIMM configuration.

I still have a vested interest in keeping the original batch of three machines working. If this needs a BIOS, or if I'm lucky in how much vibration these units have suffered, then fine I can live with that. I'm sure Abit tested this solution before going into Version1.0 hardware production. I trust them, but I remain concerned about power regulation, initialisation correctness and northbridge longevity.

There is seemingly a BIOS revision from Abit (apologies for the newbie restricted linking [cross-posting], but it is an official forum for this board rather than a hexus competitor):
forum<dot>abit-usa<dot>com<slash>showthread.php?t=122393
lists this update for 13th April (Friday 13th!)
www<dot>lvcoyote<dot>com<slash>M612A_12.B01.zip
(perhaps someone who's earned themselves more than 5 posts here could correct the above in a subsequent post, TIA)

The release notes for this talks of a power issue, but this is the "last-state" following and "always-power-on" ATX power capabilities that exist and work correctly amongst most boards. It isn't to solve dead boards, unless there is something else in there. I'll wait for this to reach general-deployment and an approved status. If I was the maker of a BIOS that stopped returns then I'd make it a mandatory upgrade and have flashing lights on it on the website!

My GeIL memory stated 1.9-2.3 volts on the manufacturers website, but I've found that the systems POST 100% reliably so far if set for the 2.1V rating as per the sticker. Undervolting for less heat and potentially greater longevity will be a subject for future consideration.

[hwilliams2048]

I just returned my F-I90HD to Fry's for refund. Had to fight though, Fry's said I lifted the sn sticker (the edges were curled up) and I told them no way. It wasn't my fault the sticker's edges were curled. They eventually refunded my money.

Back to the board. The PCIE slots were inoperative with either a firewire or eSata card installed. Both cards were verified in my Asus system and worked fine, but not on the F-I90HD. Also, during boot, 10% of the time it wouldn't find the RAID drive. Sent multiple emails to ABIT but no response. Finally called Tech support and they said return it for refund.

I really wish they could work out the bugs because in uATX form factor this appears to be the best from a spec perspective. However everyone's experience seems to indicate that the design and quality are not solid.

[gilgamesh]

Buff, Dworley etc

I suspected as such but due to not having a damaged board myself, whoever I can confirm that the packaging maybe a contributing factor to a FEW of the boards not working, at that time, however on fourther anylsis I know believe this can be a factored into the equation.

I have had a word with PR in Tiawan about 20 mins ago, the issue is going to be looked at, packaging dept has been informed of this, issue is going to be looked at.

Agreed that the board should NEVER have room to shift around in the box, I have asked to be updated on this issue and will feed back to you when I have an answer.

The packaging most certainly needs to be addressed.

gilgamesh

As promised I said I will have the board slippage in the box issue addressed.

here is the feedback I would give you as promised

Abit has had a word with USI (the people whom package the board) and they have had a review of their SOP (standard operating procedure) in which they have redesigned the cardboard so as not to allow any motherboard slippage in future

Thats the best I can do on that issue people, ABIT have corrected the issue now and all future shipments (obviously previous shipments will have the old style box) will have the new packaging to prevent possible damage to the board.

Gilgamesh

[BUFF]

However everyone's experience seems to indicate that the design and quality are not solid.

This is obviously exaggerated - even in threads like at [H] there are plenty of people running working boards as well as those with faulty mobos.
In another thread here Sean at abit UK has said that abit UK has only had 3 or 4 returned which doesn't sound like a high % at all given that there was pent up demand in the UK as well as the US.

[Typhoon]

I think ive managed to get one of the boards with problems It seemed really funny when i got it on wednesday but i just put it down to my hiper modular PSU. It would boot but only get so far into my windows installation and die. It did it at exactly the same point every time. So time for a change of PSU, went an got myself a corsair modular 520w. Very nice PSU if anyones thinking of getting one. I still got the same problem Decided to up the ram voltage as it seemed a little low and the CPU core voltage a little to . Viola it works, with windows installed i thought i was home and dry. Nope, the board within 30mins of me getting it to work now wont boot up at all. The lights on the board all light up and all the fans spin up but thats it, no beep from the bios or anything. RMA time i think which is a shame as it seems like a nice board.

Specs incase anyone needs to know:

Abit F-i90HD
E4300 Core 2 Duo
2Gb Crucial Ballistix PC 6400
Corsair 520w PSU
Samsung Spinpoint IDE 250Gb
Samsung 18x SATA DVD-RW
Thermaltake sonic tower
Jeantech micro titan case
2x Nexus 120mm Fans

[j1979]

This is obviously exaggerated - even in threads like at [H] there are plenty of people running working boards as well as those with faulty mobos.
In another thread here Sean at abit UK has said that abit UK has only had 3 or 4 returned which doesn't sound like a high % at all given that there was pent up demand in the UK as well as the US.

if you believe that, you will also believe the moon is made of cheese.

[konman43]

if you believe that, you will also believe the moon is made of cheese.

lol. amazing man. you're 50% of the failure rate in the UK. bwahaha! must make me 25% in the US or something...

I think ive managed to get one of the boards with problems It seemed really funny when i got it on wednesday but i just put it down to my hiper modular PSU. It would boot but only get so far into my windows installation and die. It did it at exactly the same point every time. So time for a change of PSU, went an got myself a corsair modular 520w. Very nice PSU if anyones thinking of getting one. I still got the same problem Decided to up the ram voltage as it seemed a little low and the CPU core voltage a little to . Viola it works, with windows installed i thought i was home and dry. Nope, the board within 30mins of me getting it to work now wont boot up at all. The lights on the board all light up and all the fans spin up but thats it, no beep from the bios or anything. RMA time i think which is a shame as it seems like a nice board.

Specs incase anyone needs to know:

Abit F-i90HD
E4300 Core 2 Duo
2Gb Crucial Ballistix PC 6400
Corsair 520w PSU
Samsung Spinpoint IDE 250Gb
Samsung 18x SATA DVD-RW
Thermaltake sonic tower
Jeantech micro titan case
2x Nexus 120mm Fans

i had the exact same problem with 2 of my boards. welcome to the club bud! i had a seasonic m12 700 pretty much same psu as you, just a little more wattage.

[obvious]

if you believe that, you will also believe the moon is made of cheese.

Good point:- http://forums.hexus.net/showpost.php...70&postcount=4

[BUFF]

& Sean has replied with an update - but they still aren't seeing many.

[romeo9]

I suspect there is almost 14 days (10 working days) between your RMA being accepted, it being tested that you were truthful and wth some testing/observational processes before the dealer concludes what is done with the manufacturer.

I'd expect ABit UK to have only had sight of 2 out of the 3 boards I've returned, if any have got back yet at all. The 3rd board is still going through the "upto 5 days approx for RMA testing". Some retailers are better than others at these things.

If your retailer grey imports from outside Europe, or has quantities higher than a few hundred listed; then it is entirely possible that the discount level that they receive precludes them for being able to return duds. Although if I were Abit I'd make exceptions for early runs of fabrication in these cases, if this can in fact occur.

I'll still go back to emphasising that I've had 6 of these boards and 3 have been fine to date. Of those that weren't - the 1st and the 3rd being catastrophic, the 2nd being sick in terms of being able to use all 4 DIMM slots. DIMM1+DIMM2 went bad and I'd already read on a forum about someone else experiencing the same trouble.

I'm going ATX now, but will watch for a fix statement from Abit and perhaps try the F-I90HD again later this year. I need something worthwhile and economic for this case now. Unless something better comes out before Abit fix whatever they need to fix in the BIOS or in manufacturing. I guess HDMI1.3, completed FireWire and DX10 enhanced functionality is going to be on integrated graphics mATX sometime soon... If Abit or their channel dismiss this issue, then I'm no better off and I'd imagine they'll receive a healthy number back.

Sliding OT but still in a reliability vein: If only I had some money to invest in Apple stock!

[japster]

Hi,

just reporting similar problem :-

working fine for 5 weeks, then no POST and three long beeps.

so after finding info on web removed one of my DDR2 dimms (incidentaly a OCz2A8002GK 1Gb of a 2Gb set and we are back up and running

but BIOS says "Not for resale" or something like that, so reflashed the Bios today with newest, but problem still there and my USB keyboard won't work any more.

my system is :-

CPU : E6300 Core 2 Duo
Ram: 2 x 1Gb DDR8 (as above) OCz ATi
Mobo : ABit F-190HD (now suspect)
650W psu
2 x SATA 2 7,200 rpm hard drives
Lite-on DVD/RW with lightscribe
mATX case

Vista 64bit Home Premium

All components new as of mid March

using onboard graphics and audio and not much else, no PCI slots loaded etc. No USB peripherals except mouse and keyboard.

So I'd like to know what's going wrong with these boards too !!! Else I've got duff RAM

[ABIT Sean]

Hi,

just reporting similar problem :-

working fine for 5 weeks, then no POST and three long beeps.

so after finding info on web removed one of my DDR2 dimms (incidentaly a OCz2A8002GK 1Gb of a 2Gb set and we are back up and running

but BIOS says "Not for resale" or something like that, so reflashed the Bios today with newest, but problem still there and my USB keyboard won't work any more.

my system is :-

CPU : E6300 Core 2 Duo
Ram: 2 x 1Gb DDR8 (as above) OCz ATi
Mobo : ABit F-190HD (now suspect)
650W psu
2 x SATA 2 7,200 rpm hard drives
Lite-on DVD/RW with lightscribe
mATX case

Vista 64bit Home Premium

All components new as of mid March

using onboard graphics and audio and not much else, no PCI slots loaded etc. No USB peripherals except mouse and keyboard.

So I'd like to know what's going wrong with these boards too !!! Else I've got duff RAM

I think your problem is more memory related as it doesn't match the faults that other users are reporting.

When you say the keyboard is no longer working is this in windows or the bios?